Looking for better chisels...

[David F. Eisan]

Hello everyone,

People are asking me what I want for Christmas. They know I have most everything I could need/want. I am thinking I might ask Santa for a new set of chisels. I currently have the Lee Valley boxed set of chisels and I am reasonably happy with them. I did buy a single 1/4" wooden handled Marples that I ground to 3/16 and rounded for doing dovetails and it seems better than my Lee Valley set for staying sharp and not rolling an edge. While I did buy it at LV a couple of years ago, I just checked and they don't seem to carry them anymore.

What are people opinions on what to buy in a high end chisel set?

Thanks,

David.

Every neighbourhood has one, in mine, I'm him.

[martin]

lots of talk about the Lie-Nielsen chisels check them out on the web.

[AAvK]

Heh... EVERYONE will puch Two Cherrys and Hirsch (same). I have a set of Stubai in a box.

There is a review there.

These are Harris tools socket chisels in a box as a set of eight for a great price, made of a hard manganese chrome steel:

eBay: suggest the greenheart (ironwood) handles for greater strength. The standard is cocobola.

Alex

[AAvK]

...'cept Martin

[Mike in Mystic]

I have a set of the Lie-Nielsen bevel-edge socket chisels, and 3 (1/4", 3/8" and 1/2") of their new mortise chisels. All are exceptionally well made. I haven't used the mortise chisels too much yet, but the bench chisels hold an edge an amazingly long time. The hornbeam handles seem to be as durable as I've seen (not saying much, really), although I haven't really done heavy striking on them - just light taps when cleaning up dovetails. They ARE steep ($250/5), but I can't imagine ever needing another set of chisels in my lifetime as long as I take care of them.

I also have a set of the Two Cherries chisels, which are also very nice, but a step below the LN in terms of durability and comfort in the hand.

Mike

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 18:55:32 -0500, "David F. Eisan" calmly ranted:

How would I know? I'm still happy with Blue Chip Marples.

Chisels or gouges? If gouges, go with Pfeil, aka "Swiss Made". They're really great; purty, too.

Is it paring chisels you're after, Bunky? Set a Japan Woodworker catalog in front of her with your favorite set circled as a hint. I inherited a couple Japanese carving chisels from an old Wreck salt and they're made of great steel. Are you ready for a set of Japanese steels?

-- Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Turkey and Drive --

[Sam the Cat]

I have had a set of the barr chisels for over a year -- plenty of comparison with marples blue handles and some low end stanley's -- worth every cent

[Adam Weber]

Given a choice, I'd be looking for a nice set of long-bladed paring chisels...the ones you've got already are great for general work, as are most of the Japanese, European and American chisels available. I'd also be checking that the handles are somewhat proportional to the nominal size of the blades--you know, smaller handle for narrow chisel--"better balance"...

Best, Adam

[Ba r r y]

I like my Hirsch (Two Cherries).

Others have mention LN's long awaited chisels. As other's have mentioned, they are typical LN quality. A co-worker has them, and I'll agree.

I'm not replacing my Hirsch chisels, but if you've got the budget, the LN's seem like "da' Bomb".

Barry

[J.B. Bobbitt]

I'm very plased with the blue steel bench chisels from the Japan Woodworker.

No affiliation.

-jbb

[patriarch]

"martin" wrote in news:oZvnd.97$hJ6.79@trndny01:

They are _very_ nice. Are the folks on the giving end up to a US$250 purchase? Sets only.

The mortise chisels are in pre-production, and are available as individual items, at $50. Usually a wait.

Patriarch

[Paul Hays]

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 05:36:06 -0800, Ba r r y wrote (in article ):

How much tuning did you have to do with your Hirsch (Two Cherries)? My only complaint about my Two Cherries chisel sets is that they were excessively buffed at the factory. Excessive in that they buffed the back of the blade enough to round over the edge quite severely. I had to take almost 1/8th of an inch off of several to get to a point where the back was actually flat.

If you can find one of the "economy sets", where they weren't polished quite so much, I'd go for those...

Also- while you're removing the coat of lacquer that the blades are shipped with prior to use, I'd recommend that you don't stop with the blades. The handles feel much nicer in the hand when they've been stripped of lacquer, sanded and finished with an oil.

Paul

[Prometheus]

I'm looking closely at some of those beauties at the Japan Woodworker.

figure anything hand forged by a blademaster in Japan has got to be better than a Craftsman, to say the least. After all, they're the folks who used to be really into beheading people with a single, clean stroke. I dig their saws, too.

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

[AAvK]

[upper snip]

Thanks Paul, that is a great idea for my Stubai set, besides that they have poor looking "Garrett Wade" in large gaudy black letters on each handle.

Alex

[rcook5]

Whether a set of high-quality Japanese chisels will be worth it depends very much on your work habits, IMHO.

If you're willing to take the time to fool with them to keep the properly sharpened and such, then they are unsurpassed. If you give them the same degree of care you give a good European (Two Cherries) or American (LN) brand of chisel they're no better than the European or American chisels and perhaps worse.

I say this based on my experience with carving tools. I have an electic mix of Japanese and European carving tools. The better Japanese ones will repay fooling with them, but you've got to fool with them to get the best out of them.

--RC

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

[rcook5]

I suspect you're going to have to hone and tune any good set of chisels, except _perhaps_ the Japanese ones. Flattening the back is part of that for me.

That said, yes, there is a tendency for some of the European stuff to be over-buffed. This never bothered me because I expect to spend some time putting any new chisel or carving tool 'right' and it's a one-time process. For instance I routinely re-bevel some of my carving tools to work on very hard woods, keepnig another set for use on softer woods like mahogany, basswood and walnut.

YMMV, of course.

--RC

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

[Ba r r y]

I didn't have any sort of experience like that.

My back flattening usually involves four grits of water-lubed DMT diamond plates and my 4000 and 8000 grit waterstones. I usually only mess with about the bottom inch or so. I don't recall spending more than 10-15 minutes on each chisel.

As for how much metal I removed, I couldn't tell you. The DMT plates are pretty aggressive in the coarser grits, so maybe I did remove a lot of metal.

I'll have to try this.

Thanks! Barry

[Australopithecus scobis]

You do touch the entire back at the diamond stages, correct? You're not leaving a snipe at the polished first inch?

[Ba r r y]

Right, but only at the coarsest stage, and I don't get crazy about how flat things are beyond the first two inches at this stage. The finer I go, the less I do, until only an inch or so hits the waterstones. Each grit step kind of feathers into the next. There is no snipe, it's fast, and it works for me. I've met folks that spent a long time flattening the entire back.

If I use up my original flattened area, which is unlikely in the next

10-15 years, I'll hit the whole back again on the XC DMT plate.

Barry

[Slowhand]

I use the Robert Sorby english mortise chisels. They hold a great edge and work well. SH